1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly, the monitoring and control of power consumption by integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microprocessors and other complex integrated circuits consume varying amounts of power during their operation. The amount of power consumed by a microprocessor can vary widely based on factors such as the type of application and its corresponding processing load. For example, applications such a graphic-intensive games or complex mathematical modeling programs may have significantly greater processing loads than applications such as a word processors or web browsers, and thus consume greater amounts of power, while resulting in a greater amount of thermal output from the processor.
Computers and other complex electronic systems are typically designed with thermal and power budgets. Power consumption and thermal output must be held within certain limits. However, power consumption and thermal output maximums are parameters that must be considered in context of system performance requirements. If power and thermal requirements are weighed too heavily in the design of a system, performance targets may become unreachable. Conversely, giving too much weight to performance may result in power and thermal targets to be exceeded.
Since the variance in required processing loads can result in a wide variance power consumption and thermal output, many processors have the capability of making adjustments to operating voltage and operating clock frequency. This allows for control over power consumption and thermal output, and may allow these parameters to meet design requirements.